Next week, the Committee to Protect Journalists will
be honoring four journalists from around the world at the International Press Freedom Awards,
an annual recognition of courageous reporting. As the awardees from Ecuador,
Egypt, and Turkey make the journey to attend the awards and benefit dinner at
the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on November 26, one of the awardees will
be absent.

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Not unusually, an already confusing situation in Tibet just
got worse. Twenty-seven Tibetans have self-immolated in protest against Chinese
this month alone, according to Human
Rights Watch. That's almost one a day. Against this chaotic backdrop, Chinese
authorities have issued an arrest order for a missing monk who helped film a
2008 documentary about life in Tibet, according to his film company, Filming
for Tibet.

CPJ supporters will know that we just honored self-taught Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen with an International Press Freedom Award, recognizing his courage documenting life under Chinese rule with full knowledge that he would face severe repercussions (he is serving a six-year jail term--you can join our petition for his release here). So we've been following with concern the latest reports that his assistant on that project, the monk Jigme Gyatso, has been missing, reportedly detained, since September.

The battle for a free press sometimes feels like a war
between indignation and intimidation. Journalists learn of abuses of power,
crime, or corruption, and--indignant--they speak out. In response, the
perpetrators of those abuses--be they government officials or criminals--try to
intimidate the journalists into silence with threats, lawsuits, jail, or even
murder. Last night, the Committee to Protect Journalists paid
tribute to a handful of journalists for whom indignation is a driving
force, no matter the scale of intimidation.

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It's
not unusual for Charter 97,
a Belarusian pro-opposition news website, to be disrupted online. CPJ has documented
intimidations, threats, and arrests against its staff members, the murder
of its founder, and denial-of-serviceattacks
against the website.

The Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria might seem like an
odd venue to stage a call for resistance. Nine hundred people in tuxedos and gowns. Champagne and
cocktails. Bill
Cunningham snapping photos. This combination is generally more likely to
coax a boozy nostalgia than foment a revolution. But the journalists honored last night at CPJ's
annual International Press Freedom Awards had a clear message to their
colleagues: Fight the power.

As he exited his car and entered the performance center, the
man in the dark pinstriped suit caught the attention of a few people, who
trailed after him. The small crowd greeted him respectfully and
enthusiastically, as someone they felt they had known all their lives. In
return he shook hands calmly and asked the names of his greeters. He was veteran
television news anchor and reporter Dan Rather.

Rather is this year's recipient of the Committee to Protect
Journalists' Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in
defending press freedom. At an event Thursday commemorating CPJ's three decades
of battling for free expression, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Rather
was interviewed by PBS's Gwen
Ifill, where he discussed today's challenges to independent journalism as
well as his own career.

It was back in December 2000 that former President Sam
Nujoma told his cabinet to block all government advertising and purchases of
the leading daily because he perceived the newspaper to be anti-governmental.
Nujoma's decree caused the paper to lose 6 percent of its advertising revenue
and 650 single-copy sales to government officials, The Namibian's founding editor and former CPJ award winner Gwen
Lister said.

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New York, July 26, 2011-- Recent news reports that Iranian
authorities have added a year to the politicized five-year sentence currently
being served by journalist Mohammad Davari is the latest example of vindictive
government policies
against critical journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.